glared at the young widow. “Mary Temple refuses to let me have any fun in life,” said Charmian. “She doesn’t understand my romantic and adventuresome nature in the least. She wants everything to move along smoothly. Well, everything has always moved entirely too smoothly to[36] suit me. I want a few obstacles set in my path. I want to have things happen to me. I want to live!” [36] After lunch the quartette approached the prospectors. Dr. Shonto introduced Charmian and Mary Temple, and all found seats on stones or logs or filled pack-bags. Charmian was eying the two men closely. Smith Morley was dark and tall, and his features were fine except for the black eyes, which were set too close together. Omar Leach was older and heavier, with a sprinkling of grey in his hair. His face was full and inclined to be red. He looked to be a powerful man. When they spoke Charmian was surprised. Both used good, everyday English, and Morley’s account of his opal seeking in Australia was intensely interesting and fired her imagination. They talked for half an hour before Morley spoke of the matter that had brought them together. And when he did so he made the plain statement that the opal claims in the Shinbone Country were for sale, on a cash basis, and that he and Leach would take the others to them, prove their value, and do anything in reason to establish them. “And how much do you ask for the claims?” asked the girl. “Fifty thousand dollars,” was Morley’s prompt reply. Before she could express surprise at the amount, or make any comment whatever, Smith Morley reached into an inner pocket of his canvas coat and took out[37] a wad of tissue paper. He deliberately unfolded it, and dropped seven large opals into the girl’s hand. [37] “Look ’em over,” he invited. “They all came from our claims. And there are plenty more like them to be found.” “They’re beautiful,” admitted Charmian, turning a stone this way and that so that it might catch the light filtering down through the treetops. “But I can’t understand why, if you can find gems like these, it doesn’t pay you to work the claims and make them defray their own expenses.” “We could do it if we were there,” put in Omar Leach. “But we’re
Prev.
Back
Top